Reply #15: A friend of mine had is laptop confiscated by local cops.

[Ian David]

The took it into the police station and started entering random passwords, trying to get access.

It turns out, the computer was programed to scramble itself or something after three failed entry attempts.

So, when the cops went to the jail cell and asked for the password, he told them it was "too late."

What he didn't tell them was that if they brought it to his company's IT manager and he plugged it into the network, the IT manager could unlock it.

In all the months they had the laptop in custody, they never had the competence to figure this out, or to find someone capable of explaining it to them.

In any case, after a high-profile media circus, the entire case was thrown-out because, it turns out, cops actually do need things like warrants and probable cause.